Joel and Ethan Coen to Rewrite Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken

It was revealed late last year that Angelina Jolie has plans to direct an adaptation of Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken as her sophmore feature film. Today, The Hollywood Reporter brings word that Jolie has found some surprising talent to board the project: Joel and Ethan Coen will rewrite the current draft by Richard LaGravenese and William Nicholson.

Co-financed and co-produced by Universal and Walden Media, Unbroken follows the incredible life story of Olympian and war hero Louis Zamperini who, along with two other crewmen, survived in a raft for 47 days after a near-fatal plane crash in WWII only to be caught by the Japanese Navy and sent to a prisoner of war camp.

The book has sat atop the New York Times bestseller list for more than 108 consecutive weeks, fourteen of those at number one. It was also the winner of the Los Angeles Times Book of the Year Award for Nonfiction.

The Coens’ latest, Inside Llewyn Davis, is slated to hit the big screen later this year through CBS Films. They also provided the script for Michael Hoffman’s Gambit, which will also see a 2013 release through the same distributor.